22 October 2019, 20:00 – 21:45 BST
Cool evening, getting colder as the night progressed. No wind.
Transparency: poor to average (improved slightly towards the end of the session)
Seeing: started out good, but suddenly deteriorated from about 21:15 onwards (opposite direction to the transparency)
NGC 7789, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Stumbled upon it while sweeping. Very pretty in the Ethos (if a little subdued by the poor transparency). Looked like a spiral galaxy without a core.
NGC 381, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Faint, boxy little spray of stars with bright tail of stars to north.
NGC 637, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Small, condensed haze – resolves with averted vision. Four bright stars at corners (double on eastern corner). Brighter field stars to west.
NGC 225, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Loose, sparse group comprised of equally bright stars. Online images show a reflection nebula (vdB 4) associated with this cluster (not sure if it's bright enough to see visually - even on a good night). NGC 225 is also nicknamed the “sailboat cluster”; I think I’d have to look at it again to see that, but I did get a sense of some kind of shape: the stars were arranged in angled lines, like a folded piece of cardboard seen from the side. I guess the “cardboard cluster” doesn’t have quite the same ring about it, but the sailboat shape didn’t jump out at me, certainly not as much as it does in NGC 1502.
Stock 24, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Spotted while sweeping area around NGC 225. Tight little fuzz with double star at eastern apex.
NGC 129, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Narrow “v” formation of stars pointing at bright star to south. Rich cluster.
NGC 136, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Small starfish or whirligig-shaped fuzz of stars. Resolved with averted vision.
Comet C/2018 N2 (ASASSN)
Small, very faint patch of light close to prominent asterism in Andromeda. Would be easy to overlook if I didn’t have the finder chart. Prolonged averted vision showed a condensed core and the suggestion of an extended coma.
At this point heavy condensation was setting in – even affecting the Ethos eyepiece – so I switched to the Nagler 9mm (133x) for the remainder of the session. I also noticed a featureless band of cloud rising slowly from the southeast.
NGC 1245, open cluster, Perseus
Rich spray of faint stars.
NGC 1023, galaxy, Perseus
Bright (relatively speaking) little galaxy, aligned east-west. Condensed core. Faint extension to east?
M76, planetary nebula, Perseus
Faintly visible unfiltered, but the poor transparency meant that I needed the OIII filter to do it any kind of justice. The familiar bi-lobed structure was apparent, with the south-western lobe clearly brighter – particularly with averted vision. On this viewing it was vaguely reminiscent of the famous Hubble image of the Homunculus (Eta Carinae).
Other notes
One tadpole in the pond (!); other frogs nowhere to be seen.
Also, the characteristic “tseep” of a migrating redwing.
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